Power is defined here as the capacity to effect one's physical surroundings and the behavior of others. As a capacity it is morally neutral. For example, a pistol is not a bad or good object. It is a hunk of metal. Left alone, all it will ever do is rust and eventually deteriorate. That same pistol in the hands of a person becomes powerful in its ability to take a life. As already mentioned, destroying life is a morally neutral act which acquires moral significance depending on its consequences.
Power can tend toward good or bad outcomes depending on whether an exertion of force results in greater goods and reinforcement or greater suffering and punishment. The use of power can be described in individuals or institutions.
Individuals can be sorted into 3 types: good people, schneevies, and scumbags. Only 2 of those types actually wield power over their environments and others.
The majority of people are sheep, or schneevies. They live life to minimize punishment without considering consequences for others. They are characterized by insufficient empathy, cowardice, unreliability, conformity, disloyalty, constant weak punishment toward others, dishonesty, obsequious displays of servility, and avoidance of discomfort. These individuals are ruled by fear of punishment. They avoid conflict in the short term, thus ensuring conflict over the long term. Schneevies are outwardly friendly and inwardly hostile. They are prone to aggression against themselves and others, yet lack the strength of will to attack a specific target overtly. They gang up on opponents and tend to utilize dishonorable tactics to ensure victory while minimizing the possibility of a painful defeat.
Schneevies balance on the precipice between decency and scumbaggery, both of which require martial strength of will.
Scumbags require strength to accept responsibility for maliciously harming others. They use punishment to effect the behavior of others and actively destroy reinforcing patterns of behavior specifically to maximize harm to a perceived opponent. Scumbags do not obey principle or law. They fully accept the possibility of being victimized in the same way they victimize others. In this way, the scumbag is at least honest about their intentions. A bank robber stands by their actions and rarely seeks to hide behind anonymity when caught. Further, committing to full fledged scumbaggery requires enough strength of will to accept punishment.
Good people require the most power to accomplish their goals and thus walk the hardest path. Without enough of them, the task of civilization fails. Good people understand that justice, peace, and natural rights are luxuries won through conflict. Life and happiness are the exceptions, not the rule. Therefore, good people are characterized by humility, honor, loyalty, gratefulness, reliability, honesty, forgiveness, and moderation. Some individuals walk this path with the help of religion and some walk alone, but all obey the same principles. In all cases, a good person requires the most power and strength of will to accomplish their goals.
At the level of institutions, the 3 individuals described above interact to generate either a cycle of construction or a cycle of destruction.
A cycle of construction is a reinforcing, self limiting feedback loop of behavior where individuals reinforce the beneficial behaviors of others to produce a surplus of some good. For example, a functional restaurant reinforces the cooking of the chef, the serving of the waitress, and the supervision of the manager. If these three roles are adequately rewarded, those individuals will be more productive and generate more surplus for the consumer in the form of good food and enjoyable interactions. This organizational ideal requires the most supervision and the most professional conduct from employees, but it creates a situation where the consumer, the manager, and the floor workers are all benefited and strengthened from their investments of time, money, and energy. Industry is the ultimate expression of a constructive cycle.
A cycle of destruction, or people grinder, is a self destructive, uncontrolled feedback loop of punishment which punishes the behaviors of workers and generates a net deficit of resources. These situations are like money sinks where the consumer pays exorbitant costs for a disappointing product, or even no product at all. An example might be a restaurant where the cook messes up orders, the waitress forgets to check on her tables, and the manager orders random "employee evaluations" to scare subordinates into looking busy. This organization results in punished behavior of the cook, who is castigated and fired, the waitress, who receives complaints and no tips, and the manager, who runs a failing business and is hated for using heavy handed tactics. These negative feedback loops result in diminishing performance and eventually run out of people to harm. Everyone involved in this interaction, from consumer to manager, to floor worker, is worse off for their investment of time, money, and energy. War is the ultimate expression of a destructive cycle.
Both of these cycles, constructive or destructive, require power to operate. If this power is given to good people, a constructive cycle generally results. When given to schneevies, a slow destructive cycle results leading to gradual organizational decline and a lot of irritable, chewed up individuals. When given to a scumbag, a cycle of destruction is purposefully initiated to cause maximum damage to all people involved, leaving scorched earth and destroyed careers or lives.
All things considered, the goal of every individual should be to maximize power while seeking to walk the martial path of good people. When choosing to invest time, money, and energy in an institution, one must consider whether they are gaining rewards from a constructive cycle or liable to get chewed up in a destructive cycle. If one notices schneevies or scumbags taking over the reigns of power within a constructive cycle, they should have the foresight to disconnect from a developing cycle of destruction before they are too badly chewed up.
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